"Luckily, Meditation isn't something just anyone can do. Otherwise, unscrupulous, black-hearted bosses would deprive the working masses of their precious little sleep.
"For Ascenders with powerful Spiritual Power, however, Meditation isn't actually that difficult. As long as you practice repeatedly and find the knack for it, you can enter the state anytime, anywhere."
Old Yang looked at Zhou Chen and asked, "Why don't you give it a try first?"
"I'll give it a try then."
Zhou Chen lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and began to attempt Meditation.
Old Yang grunted in acknowledgment, then leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and waited quietly.
Simply put, Meditation just requires you to empty your mind to enter that state of deep sleep.
But the hard part is that as soon as you close your eyes, all sorts of images pop into your head. At a time like that, you can't just think: 'Empty my mind, empty my mind, empty my mind...'
The more you think about it, the more chaotic your mind becomes.
To successfully enter a state of Meditation, you have to find a method and technique that suits you and, through long-term, repeated training, develop it into a habit etched deep into your Soul.
Zhou Chen closed his eyes and tried his best to control himself, to think of nothing and ensure his mind was empty.
At first, he did manage to empty it for two or three seconds, but then his consciousness was carried away by all sorts of scattered, trivial thoughts. When he came to his senses, he hurriedly cleared his mind of distractions, but after just ten-odd seconds, his thoughts couldn't help but wander again, and he started thinking about a whole lot of nothing.
Just like that, he was constantly pulled back and forth between a wandering mind and an empty one.
Gradually, Zhou Chen felt himself sinking, as if submerged in dark water, yet also as if floating on the clouds, his heart filled with tranquility and peace.
His breathing slowed…
His body relaxed…
After waiting for five or six minutes and seeing no reaction from Zhou Chen, Old Yang couldn't help but frown. 'This kid couldn't have succeeded on his first try, could he? That'd be too ridiculous.'
He uncrossed his legs, leaned forward to take a look, and found Zhou Chen breathing evenly, sleeping especially soundly, and looking like he was about to start drooling.
'He fell asleep?!'
A speechless Old Yang woke Zhou Chen up.
Zhou Chen seemed to have had an exceptionally comfortable sleep. He stretched and loosened his muscles. "I feel like I slept so well for those few minutes… My head doesn't hurt as much anymore. Am I close to succeeding?"
"No way. You're not even close."
Old Yang broke off a slice of orange and tossed it into his mouth. "While Meditation is a special state of deep sleep, you're not actually asleep. On the contrary, your consciousness remains awake, keenly aware of every little thing happening in the outside world, and you can wake up at any moment.
"Try again. Don't fall asleep this time. Remember, you have to feel for that sense of emptiness."
'A feeling?'
A troubled look appeared on Zhou Chen's face. As everyone knows, no matter what you're doing, a "feeling" is the hardest thing to find. It's something mysterious and profound, not something that can be explained in just a few words. You can only gain experience through repeated practice and constant exploration.
He closed his eyes and tried again. A dozen or so minutes later, he opened them and said dejectedly, "It's no use. I can't enter the state at all. I either keep letting my mind wander, or I feel like I'm about to fall asleep."
"That's normal."
Old Yang stroked his chin in thought for a moment before suggesting, "Doesn't that chainsaw of yours make you cold and ruthless? Try holding it and see what happens. It might help."
"That doesn't seem right. The document said using this thing too much can affect your mental state."
Zhou Chen glanced at the chainsaw, yet for some reason, he felt an eager impulse. 'But I don't really feel anything right now… Maybe I'll just give it one try?'
"Go on, try it. Worst-case scenario, the psychotherapy room is just upstairs."
With the mentality that since they'd already talked about it, there was no harm in trying, Zhou Chen reached out and gripped the chainsaw. He instantly entered a cold and ruthless state, overcome with the desire to find something to chop up.
He took a deep breath, desperately suppressing the impulse.
A dozen or so minutes later, he opened his eyes and sighed. "Still no good."
"Well, there's nothing for it then. You'll just have to slowly figure it out on your own. If you really can't, you can sign up for a Meditation tutoring class. It's ten thousand yuan an hour."
Old Yang shrugged, indicating he was out of ideas. Then he glanced up at the clock on the wall, and his expression changed abruptly. "Crap, how did it get so late? You just keep working on it. I have to go, something came up."
He didn't say what it was, just hurriedly left the hospital room.
"Alright… Be careful on your way out."
After seeing Old Yang off, Zhou Chen opened his tablet and went through the materials related to Meditation. When all was said and done, the essence of it was still to empty the mind. This was the most fundamental and crucial step; without it, Meditation was impossible.
After reading countless articles by various scholars, Zhou Chen came across a short piece titled "A Three-Minute Guide to Proper Meditation." It said that beginners shouldn't try to force Meditation but should approach it step by step. The simplest method was to count their breaths.
The author divided it into stages: completing ten breaths without any distracting thoughts was the first stage, thirty breaths was the Second Stage, followed by fifty, seventy, one hundred… and so on. This number gradually increased until one could naturally empty their mind without needing to count breaths at all. Once you had no distracting thoughts, you had officially mastered Meditation.
Zhou Chen thought this method was good, so he closed his eyes and gave it a try. He completed the first stage smoothly, but the further he went, the more easily other things came to mind, and he ultimately failed before his twenty-fourth breath.
After several consecutive attempts, he found that this method was indeed very useful for effectively training his concentration.
By the latter half of the night, Zhou Chen could already count more than sixty breaths without any distracting thoughts. If he hadn't been disturbed by the sound of nurses walking in the hallway outside, he could have kept going for even longer.
However, the prolonged attempts had become somewhat dull and tedious. He also knew well that when in such a state, repeating the same task would cause the success rate to plummet.
So, Zhou Chen ran out of his room and did a dozen laps around the medical department building. He returned, took a comfortable hot shower, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and after getting himself into the right state of mind, launched another assault on Meditation.
This time, his state was surprisingly good. By the end, he could maintain an empty mind without even having to deliberately count his breaths.
When the passage of time was subconsciously ignored, his entire being seemed to plunge into a void of Darkness. From within that long eternity, Zhou Chen finally grasped that wondrous feeling. He chased it, constantly moving forward.
As if galloping through profound Darkness, he ran faster and faster, finally crashing headfirst into a ball of blazing light. His spirit seemed to pass through some kind of invisible boundary, breaking free from the shackles of his body and soaring up like a graceful breeze.
The World seemed to fall silent, yet at the same time, it became noisy and chaotic as all sorts of sounds flooded his ears.
The sound of the wind, the chirping of cicadas, the murmur of conversations, the sound of footsteps, the beating of hearts, the humming of instruments…
He was like a Ghost, passing through walls and all sorts of obstacles, wandering freely.
As his consciousness spread, he saw the snoring, soundly sleeping patient in the next room, and he saw the young nurses working the night shift at the front desk.
He saw doctors changing a patient's medication in a ward, he saw administrative staff pulling an all-nighter in their offices, and he saw the busy figures in the emergency room, which was as bright as day…
But, after a brief moment, Zhou Chen felt he had reached his limit, and his consciousness instantly returned to his body.
He opened his eyes, savoring the memory of that wondrous state, still in disbelief.
"…Astral projection?"